Plastic to Painkillers: A Clever Way to Recycle

Plastic waste is a big problem. It's everywhere and hard to get rid of. But what if we could turn it into something useful, like medicine? Scientists have found a way to do just that. They used a common bacteria called E. coli to change plastic into a key ingredient for paracetamol, a common painkiller. Here's how it works. First, they took plastic bottles and turned them into a new material using green chemistry. Then, they mixed this material with E. coli. The bacteria did something amazing. They turned the material into a substance called PABA, which is important for their growth. This happened because the bacteria were changed in a lab to need this new material. But that's not all. The scientists went further. They added two special genes to the E. coli. One came from mushrooms, and the other from soil bacteria. These genes helped the bacteria turn PABA into paracetamol. And they did it fast—in less than a day! The best part? The process was clean and efficient, with up to 92% of the material turning into paracetamol. This discovery is exciting. It shows that we can use plastic waste to make useful things. But it's not ready for the market yet. More work is needed to make it work on a big scale. Still, it's a step in the right direction. It shows that by combining chemistry and biology, we can find new ways to solve old problems.